Create an Adwords ad and choose a good description

The Create Ad page is where we build our first ad. There are five components to these four-line ads. Headline. The ad headline may be up to 25 characters long and should appropriately represent what you believe the searcher is looking for based on the keywords you plan to bid on. This ad is a broadly focused ad, and I will probably be bidding on keywords like “shop” or “shopping.” Notice that I have entered “Shop on eBay” as my headline. If I am planning on bidding on a few different keywords, I might also try using the keyword insertion tool to customize my heading to match the user’s search terms that triggered my ad.

Now, if I bid on the phrase “shop and save,” for instance, my headline would appear to the user as “Shop and save on eBay.” You should also be aware that there are a few different formats to the keyword insertion tool. If I had not capitalized {keyword: . . . }, then it would read, “shop and save on eBay” without capitalizing the first word.

If I had capitalized the K and W {Key- Word: . . . }, thenmyad would have read, “ShopAnd Save on eBay,” with each word of the keyword phrase capitalized. Note that the full keyword insertion code includes the word shopping. This will be the default word used in the headline should the search term be unable to display due to the length or for any other reason.

Description Line1. In the first line of the description, I usually expand on the headline with a reason or reasons for the user to go to the site I’m promoting. In this instance, I have typed, “Shop and Save Money on eBay.” My goal here is to suggest that by going to eBay instead of clicking on some other site’s ad, the user might save money, which is certainly possible for a savvy bidder on eBay. I might also have suggested it would be easy to find what the user wants on eBay. The point is, in this line of your ad you should give the user a reason to choose this site over the others.

Description line 2. The second line of the description can sometimes be used in the same way as the first, giving the user a second reason to visit the site. I prefer, however, to use this line when appropriate to weed out traffic that will not earn a commission anyway. Since eBay requires users to register to use the service, and because these registrations are the bulk of my revenue, I try to let users know that registration will be necessary. This way, people who are not willing to register don’t waste their time and my money by clicking on my ad. Of course, I do try to put a positive spin on it, hence the phrase, “Registration is Free and Easy!” Note also the use of an exclamation point. Punctuation, if used intelligently, can often improve your ad’s CTR, but be aware that AdWords will not allow you to overuse it.

Display URL. This is the URL that your ad will display. It does not have to match the Destination URL, but they both must point eventually to the same top-level domain.

Destination URL. This is the actual URL you want customers to go to when they click on your ad, and here is where you will enter the tracking code when you signed up for eBay (or whatever other program you may have chosen). By the way, all Commission Junction affiliate programs allow you to uniquely identify your ads using a Shopper ID (SID). This optional variable can be inserted into the tracking code to individually track the actions of each and every customer who clicks on one of your ads, but I typically use it just to separately identify each ad group so that I can calculate my returns by ad group later. If I intend to name this ad group eBay Shopping, for instance, I would add the following piece of code to the end of my tracking code: &SID=ebayshopping. Once you have finished filling in the five elements of your ad, click Continue to go on to the Choose Keywords page. Be aware that Google will quickly review your ad and may reject any portion of it that violates Google’s editorial guidelines. Google always provides clear explanations for these rejections, and you will not have any problem understanding what you’ve done and how to fix it if such a rejection occurs. Be aware that you can also apply for an exception if you feel Google’s policy was not correctly applied in any particular case, in which case an AdWords representative will review your ad manually.

and running the same ads would be a surefire way to ruin my business, so you will have to find good keywords on your own. If you happen to pick some of my own best keywords and phrases to trigger your ads, then good luck, and may the best ads win.

Choose Keywords. I will not repeat my descriptions of keyword matching types here that I made early in this article, but I will tell you the formats for each of these matching types on Google.

• Broad match. Any keyword or keywords entered without quotes, brackets, or hyphens.

• Phrase match. Any keyword or keywords entered within quotes.

• Exact match. Any keyword or keywords entered within brackets.

• Negative match. Any keyword or keywords entered after a hyphen.

You can see clearly in the preceding example which keywords are intended for broad match, phrase match, and exact match, as well as which keywords and phrases are intended as negative matches to avoid triggering my ad for an irrelevant search. When you are finished entering your keywords, click Continue to move on to the Set Pricing page.